Three Months on the Nose: Its Officially Over

Well it's officially over. Three months on the nose. Im not sure exactly how that worked out. When people initially asked how long the trip would take we would always respond with a ball park of "three months". Somehow, with absolutely no planning, or aleast as little as we could manage, we nailed our anticipated end date. Stellar! But we can't take all the credit for the success of this trip. Over the past three months we've had the help of countless friends and the endless support of our families. But in between visits with these friends and families, we were lucky enough to bump into many new friends along the way. In each province we rolled into, we would consistantly run into people who would help keep the trip running smoothly, filling in the holes we happened to miss. Time and again, from the first day until the last, we met people who would go out of their way to help two confused and spandexed young guys.

L'Arche as an organization, as well as a community, was fantastic in supporting our trip. They were amped about our trip from the get go. The houses along the way were amazing and very welcoming. They would not hesitate to bring us into their home and offer us a place to stay, food to eat, and a warm shower. The people we met in the houses always seemed excited to have guests and were amazing hosts. Each house had a different flavour and different history, but all were similar in their warmth and hospitality. We are hoping to do a little more fundraising in the Victoria area to make up for the difficulties of fundraising on the road.

The final leg of our trip was up and down. I mean that in the most literal manner. The mountains were the final obstacle we were faced with, but I think we may have finally caught a bit of a break going from East to West. As we headed out from a wicked stay in Calgary with the Pittmans and the rest of the Calgary crew, we had a somewhat windy day (surprise surprise), but in typical trip fashion, the second half of the day was a breeze (or a lack there of). We pedalled into Banff in time for Skye's buddy Neil's rugby game. Banff is a beautiful town and the rugby pitch was surrounded by mountains and even had about 12 elk in attendence. Neil's team ran over the oppostion and so post game spirits were high. We headed back to Neil's for the evening and then toured about the town. We checked out some local spots and even met up with some of our new biking friends Joanna and Kyle. We caught up on trip festivities and then made our way back to Neil's apartment. One thing led to another and we were forced to enter the apartment from through the second story window. Who needs keys anyways? We woke up the next day and grabbed a little breakfast and then spent the day relaxing in the sun, finally out of the miserable weather we'd been experiencing in central Canada. After a midday nap we met up with our friend Mary for a feast of Chicken Nachos and some other delicious snacks. After a nice visit we decided to walk back across town to Neil's place. But, for the second straight night we were forced to use the second story window enterence. Buuut, due to our previous enterences, the window was incapable of being entered. So, we turned directly around and ended up crashing on Mary's couch/floor. After our "relaxing" staying in Banff we decided we needed to shape up and ship out or else we may just get trapped in that crazy little town. So, we took off the next day and made our way to Golden. Our good buddy and roommate Archie (Jeremey Archibald) hooked us up with his cousin Dave's contact. Dave and his girlfriend Sharma put us up for the night and were wicked folks. They were huge into the extreme sports world and Sharma even designs custom long boards for her own company, Slow Motion Longboards. Coolio. Despite the pull to stay in such a gnarly place, we decided to push on into the mountains.

As we made our way into the mountains and through Roger's pass, the landscape began to change. The mountains were smaller and totally different. Around Salmon Arm we noticed the haze and smoke of forest fires, but were easily able to pass through. The landscape began to take a desert like face. There was plenty of sand like soil and it became apparent why the area is so susceptible to forest fires. We arrived in Kamloops in the evening and stopped for a nice gourmet meal of hamburger helper. After being offered to sell crack for some local fellow we kindly declined and decided to try and make our way out of town in search of a good camping spot. Much to our dismay we realized that Kamloops is built on a huge, huge hill. Good for views, terrible news for bikes. As we struggled up and over this massive hill, I must have looked particularily shabby because a passing truck inquired if we were looking for a place to camp. Gasping, we both shouted "Yes!". The folks in the truck turned out to be new friends Allan and Jenny Eastwood. Allan and Jenny offered us a spot in their house and were kind enough to feed and shower us, even sacrificing some of their Okanagan Valley peaches to our weary selves. Allan and his son had traveled across Canada and were sympathetic to the bike touring cause. We spent the night chatting about the outdoors and the wonderful activities that come with. They were super friendly and its always nice to run into people who understand how crappy biking up a huge hill at night is. Their daughter Lindsay was kind enough to make us breakfast in the morning, setting us up for a good day of biking. We parted ways and began what we believed would be a decent day. Turns out, the first 6 mins were all down hill. And how thankful were we! From there on the day was hellish. The first half was seemingly all up hill. I struggled particuarily hard and was clearly slowing Skye down. We rolled into Merrit and were wiped. We had a chessey pork melange and our signature bag of Jalepeno Cheddar chips and then decided to hit the road and attack atleast a piece of the upcoming Coquihalla pass. A tidbit from a passerby let us in on a better route for atleast a piece of the journey. We took his advice and headed onto the road, and into the dark, down Cold River Rd. We had about 30kms to travel until we met back up with the highway, but we spent it all in the pitch black down an old side road. It was definitely scary. And I don't care who you are. That had to have scared you. It was honestly pitch black outside. And Im pretty sure its not where the deer or the buffalo roam. More like where the Grizzly Bear and the Cougar roam. But, lucky for us we came upon a camp set up for the forest fire fighters and they let us camp next to their camp sites right by the river. It was nice to see people and civilization after two hours biking through the dark wilderness. We camped out close to the river and I nearly knocked myself out trying to tie our food up and away from the bears. But, I just barely avoided it. Lucky for me.

In the morning we enjoyed a light beakfast of beans and a bun and headed out. We started the day with the beginning of the pass. It was about 6 kms of uphill climb and then it leveled out. We biked for a while longer and were waiting for the rest of the climb. We stopped for a break, scrounged our change, and bought a little snack. Chatting with a fellow and his daughter they told us some of the most fantastic news. Apparently it was all down hill for the rest of the trip. Barely believing him we still got stoked about the possibility. Shortly after, we found out he was right. We began a decent of almost 20kms. And it kept going. Right into Hope. The day was a breeze. We flew into Hope for grub and then continued flying through town. We hoped to get 40kms after dinner and lucked into 60kms thanks to some light tail winds and some sweet downhills. We rolled into Chilliwack as it was growing dark and searched for a place to camp. It was nearly a concrete jungle where we were searching but we figured that if the crackheads behind WalMart would leave us alone we would be fine. While we were setting up shop on a patch of grass behind the bargain giant a security guard came up and asked us how we were doing. We were slightly worried because, after almost three months on the road camping illegally we had never been kicked out and we figured, "crap, not on the last night!". But luckily for us, our new security friend AJ was really nice and was stoked to hear about our trip. He told us we were more than welcome to crash for the night and even radioed the rest of the guards and let them know not to bother us. He offered us washroom facilities and told us to hollar if we needed anything. Its funny how you can be worried about one thing, and then the total opposite happens.

The morning was a mix and mash of people from all over the place. We met some folks who were traveling back to the west coast after a long trip hitch hiking and rail hoping. We thought the rails were a dead, but atleast some people are still using them. Bahzing! We left Chilliwack and thought we had it all worked out. A nice and easy 100km day right into the ferry to meet our buddy Taylor Kipp at the ferry. Turns out that Vancouver is like every other city and insists we take an alternate route into town. Well, just like every other town, we do not know which the fastest, best, or even workable route is. So, as we searched for an alternate route we were lucky to have bumped into Barry and Wendy, two other bikers from Chilliwack. Noticing we were lost (somehow, must have been the perplexed looks on our faces and the fact we were standing on an overpass staring at the highway we weren't allowed onto) they offered up directions and then decided to join us for a pedal and lead us in the right direction. After a nice ride, we exchanged contact information and they pointed us in the right direction. But, par for the course, we shortly forgot the directions and were forced to ask more people and try to navigate the roads with our "trusty" blackberry. Regardless, we ran into highways that insisted bikes were not allowed on highways and that we must reroute ourselves. After some tricky road choices Skye had has pointed in the right direction and we cruised the final leg of our journey.

The feeling as we neared the water was exhilerating. Despite the 120km day, filled with confusion and route changes, the closer we got to the water, the larger our smiles got. It was tough holding in the excitement when we finally saw the water. It's an interesting feeling when you wait for something that long and then it is finally realized. Arriving was glorifying, but not in an extrinsic way, but in an intrinsic way. There wasn't a big parade, or fireworks, but what was there were the same things that were there all along. Friends and family were all behind us, from the first day until the last. Our famlies were both happy to hear we were safe and sound and proud that we had accomplished what we sought out to. Our friends were excited to see us, as we were them, and despite not seeing each other for a while, nothing had changed. Our buddy Kipp was waiting for us, ready to catch up on news of the summer.

And so I think those were the most rewarding and reassuring things about the trip. Our families were always behind us, supporting our desicions and helping us realize them. Our friends were always waiting with open arms to take us in, feed us until we'd burst, and catch up on missed stories and halerious situations that happened while we were gone. And new friends were always coming around the corner. We never knew who they were, where or how we'd meet them, but we always found ourselves at the end of the day saying how awesome it was that things worked out the way they did on that specific day. Most times you couldn't have planned the lucky situations we found ourselves in and the people we would meet. But, everything fell in place just so that we could enjoy three months on the road, exploring Canada. Though each hill had its ups and the wind enjoyed its time in our face, looking back, its clear that the trip was amazing, unforgetable, and definitely once in a life time.

Thanks to everyone who helped out. Honestly, we have the hugest Pay It Forward debt around. Were going to have to be nice forever to keep up with all the nice gestures people have shared. To everyone who donated, whether it was time, money, space, food, shelter or anything else, you're all gems. If you didn't get a chance to help us out, feel free to help out the next person you see. Believe it or not everyone can use a little help from a friend. Anytime. Any place. I think that may be infringement on the Beatles song, but Im sure they wont mind. We are so thankful for everyones help and hope you all had a wicked summer.

Cheers